FRSC To Hike Fees For Driver’s Licence, Number Plate

ABUJA, NOVEMBER 29, 2016 – The Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) has said it is considering raising the cost of procuring the driver’s licence and vehicle plate number due to the cost of producing the two items.

The corps marshall of the agency, Boboye Oyeyemi, who disclosed this on Monday, November 28, said the current rate of N6,000 and N12,000 for both items respectively was no longer sustainable judging from the hike in operational cost owing to the recession.

Oyeyemi, made this disclosure at the 136th meeting of the Joint Tax Board (JTB) held in Abuja, where he said debt was crippling the operations of the FRSC nationwide, Daily Post reports.

He said the running cost for the agency keeps swelling as many states have failed to supply generators to the FRSC offices where vehicle plate number plates and drivers licence are procured.

He however commanded some states like Anambra and Delta for offsetting their debt, even as he urged others to emulate them.

He said: “N6,000 to get a driver’s licence and N12,000 for vehicle plate number is too poor. We are spending so much to produce them. I’m running over 200 in stations across the country. I shouldn’t be providing that. The states should.

“When I came in last year, the popular Mikano generator was N1.5 million, now it’s N3.8 million. Only Kwara State provided a generator. Majority of the states defaulted in providing that. All states should have secured offices. They should own these stations and I want to relocate workstations there. I want to stamp out corruption. Enough is enough.

“So, for us, our running costs is too high and the states should help us. We can be collecting N1,000 on every plate number and N500 on every licence as commission. That will help us a great deal.”

Meanwhile, the Federal Executive Council (FEC) yesterday, November 23 approved the purchase of vehicles worth N464 million for the FRSC.

The vehicles include 50 pick-up vans to be purchased from Innoson Motors, Nnewi, and 27 Peugeot 301 cars to be bought from Peugeot Automobile Nigeria, Kaduna.

According to the minister of labour and productivity, Dr Chris Ngige the decision to patronise indigenous companies was in line with the government’s local content policy.